Vintage Sicily: a wine tour of the island

Winemaking in Sicily is as old as the hills, but a new breed of producers is offering a fresh way of getting a taste for it, with great food and accommodation amid the vines.

The pool at La Foresteria, near Menfi, Sicily

The pool at La Foresteria, near Menfi, Sicily

It felt like entering a Bond villain’s lair. We followed Viviana Pitino of the Buonivini estate through a door deep in the hillside into a cavernous hi-tech space. Inside was a sleek, modern winery lined with stainless steel tanks and smelling strongly of grapes. Deeper underground was the barrel room, where plans were being laid for, if not world domination, a serious assault on the global wine market: row upon row of oak barrels were slowly turning that grape juice into some of Sicily’s finest wines. “Welcome to our invisible winery,” said Viviana.

The contrast with what lay outside and above was startling. We’d arrived at sunset, through what looked like the set of a spaghetti western, all parched hills and ruined houses. This area, on the southernmost tip of Italy, has been called Buonivini (the name – good wines – says it all) from time immemorial, but lay unloved until a few years ago, when it was acquired by the Planeta family, leaders in Sicily’s wine renaissance.

They replanted native nero d’avola and moscato bianco vines and, so as not to disfigure this ancient land, delved deep beneath the hills to build a winery for Santa Cecilia DOC, a smooth powerful liquorice-y red, and two whites, luscious passito di noto dessert wine and a drier, aperitif-like version.

Restored houses on the Buonivini estate

Restored houses on the Buonivini estate

The great thing about Buonivini is that as well as tours and tastings, visitors can enjoy this atmospheric spot with a stay in its Case Sparse – scattered houses. Rather than demolish the eight ruined dwellings that dotted the estate, the Planetas are renovating them as self-catering lets that, painted in traditional pinky-red, look as timeless as these hills. Two are finished so far, a romantic one-room hideaway, and a larger house with two en suite doubles, where we stayed.

While the Sicilian peasants who built these homes would be surprised at the aircon and rain showers, they’d probably find much familiar. Furnishings by Milanese designer Costanza Algranti use reclaimed wood and steel found on the estate. Barrel tops formed the headboard in our bedroom, a wall-mounted ladder made a bookshelf, and a cute rocking chair by the fireplace was made from barrel staves. The stylish tile and recycled wood kitchen was stocked for breakfast: coffee, fruit, yoghurt, pastries.

Interior at Buonivini's Case Sparse

Interior at Buonivini’s Case Sparse

There was a barbecue outside and we could have enjoyed supper there – picking rosemary and lemons for seasoning. But guests can also book a meal (three courses with matching wines for €40) in the site’s ancient palmento. This was where growers would bring their grapes to be pressed in centuries past; now restored, it serves as tasting room, occasional restaurant and music venue. There we tucked into glorious pasta with tuna and sundried cherry tomatoes – sprinkled Sicilian-style with crunchy breadcrumbs instead of parmesan – then chose from a spread that included more local tuna, fresh anchovies, courgettes baked with Ragusano cheese, stuffed chillies and delicate ricotta fritters. A dessert of macerated strawberries and brutti ma buoni (meringue cookies: the name means ugly but nice) went perfectly with the passito wine. In summer guests can also book picnic lunches with live music in the deep shade of the estate’s stately carob trees.

Several people asked before our trip if Sicilian wine wouldn’t be all rough rocket fuel. It would have been until around a decade ago. Government incentives favoured quantity over quality, and powerful plonk was exported in bulk for blending with thinner northern wines. But Sicily has a long, honourable wine tradition: Julius Caesar’s favourite tipple was said to be the island’s mamertino white. And visionary winemakers such as Diego Planeta, head of the family business, have encouraged a return to high-end wines, helping to boost Sicily’s reputation – and its export earnings – with quality bottled vintages.

Bedroom at La Foresteria

Bedroom at La Foresteria

Holidaymakers can plug into this renaissance in several more places. We’d begun our tour 250km to the west, at another of the Planetas’ properties, La Foresteria, a 14-bedroom boutique hotel in a new low-rise building amid vineyards near the town of Menfi. Our room, Timo (thyme), was in cool green, with a terrace looking over the extensive herb garden and the sea. We borrowed bikes to ride 5km on a disused railway line-cum-cycle track to blue-flag Porto Palo beach, and my husband still had energy for a dip in the infinity pool. Foresteria is an old word for guest quarters, and the place does feel more family home than hotel (albeit not the kind of families we know). Fine menus by chef Angelo Pumilia – who comes from nearby Sciacca but trained under Ancona’s two-Michelin-starred fish whizz Moreno Cedroni – are served at a huge table in the glass-walled dining room or, in summer, on the wide terrace.

Lunch preparations at Ulmo winery. Photograph: Colin Boulter

Lunch preparations at Ulmo winery. Photograph: Colin Boulter

I particularly enjoyed a dry, peachy semi-oaked chardonnay (not my usual choice) served with artichoke and shrimp risotto, so next day we went to see where it is made, a few miles away. At Ulmo, another Planeta estate, merlot, chardonnay and grecanico vines run down to Lake Arancio from a rambling 16th-century baglio, or farmhouse. After a guided tour a buffet lunch of country specialities made the perfect excuse to also taste its more restrained grecanico blend, Alastro.

We ended our tour in the south-east, near the Unesco-listed town of Noto. Giovanni Boroli and Isabella Fucale decamped from Milan to La Giasira five years ago and have planted seven hectares with mostly local vines such as nero d’avola and cataratto. They now produce 35,000 bottles a year, plus olive oil, almonds and fruit – all organic. They have converted a stable block into four self-catering guest rooms: ours, “Traveller”, is decorated with old maps. (They were canny enough not to give Brits the “Hunter” room – with taxidermied wildfowl and lion’s head rug.) The other three sides of the block are taken up by a long, sleek kitchen, dining veranda and glass-walled sitting room, which the guests share.

Grounds at La Giasira, near Noto

Grounds at La Giasira, near Noto

We could have filled a fortnight in this corner of south-east Sicily, enjoying baroque cities such as Modica, Ragusa and Siracusa; walks and wild beaches in Vendicari nature reserve; and buzzy evenings at up-and-coming seaside hangout Marzamemi. And possibly the best attraction lies within La Giasira’s lands: in a deep gorge a short walk from the guesthouse, the mysterious Prainito river surfaces for a few kilometres before disappearing underground. There are prehistoric tombs in the canyon sides, a sixth-century Byzantine church delved in rock, and the remains of a Moorish watermill, but all these would pale beside the prospect, on a broiling day, of a dip in the river’s clear pools and little waterfalls.

Earlier we’d met Valentina Barbera of ScopriMenfi, a tourist association promoting the area’s delights. “We should be as well-known as Napa Valley,” she said. Fanciful, I thought, until I saw the undeveloped coast and vine-clad hills, tasted the world-beating wines – and learned that loggerhead turtles are once again nesting here on several unspoilt beaches. Southern Sicily has the lowest rainfall in Europe, balmy days well into October, and flights at a fraction of the time and cost of slogging to California. Maybe the New Napa idea isn’t so mad.


Original article by Liz Boulter on The Guardian Travel

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